Nothing uncontested…Marion Local’s Austin Niekamp had his shot blocked by Monroe Central’s Corbin Farnsworth during the second half of Saturday’s 43-35 loss in the Division VI basketball final. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks and Brian Bayless)
On a frustrating afternoon where the numbers and the competition were simply undeniable, some old issues came back to haunt Marion Local in the Division VI title game with Monroe Central.
Dayton, OH – In an address to congress in 1862, Lincoln famously said, “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history”, reminding that the past will inevitably have an impact on the present.
History, it seems, does have a way of repeating itself and on numerous occasions earlier in the 2025 basketball season, Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller freely addressed an Achilles heel with his basketball team.
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“We’re not a great shooting team. We have trouble scoring sometimes,” he said following their loss to Delphos St. John in January, one of the Flyers two regular season losses.
And that flaw came back to bite them Saturday in the most unfortunate of times, losing to Monroe Central, 43-35 for the OHSAA Division VI basketball title.
Monroe was as good as warned about earlier in the week…a tenacious team on defense, skilled on offense, and athletic enough to compete with teams that over-matched them in size. And that’s exactly what they did to Marion Local, who had their season short-circuited as the #1-ranked team in Division VI with a 26-3 mark, and a school record for wins in a season.
Monroe Central wasn’t impressed.
Monroe Central attacked on offense and their defense created 15 Marion Local turnovers.
The Seminoles, making their first-ever appearance in the OHSAA state tournament, attacked off the opening tip, jumping out to a 14-6 lead after the first quarter, prompting one on radio row to remark, “Monroe was scoring while Marion Local was trying to run its offense.”
And Monroe’s defense seemed to stun Marion, not only holding the Flyers to 6 points for the half, but 17 for the first half. Every pass, every shot, every dribble and every inbound play was highly contested, much to the delight of a roaring throng from southeastern Ohio who had made the four-hour drive to witness history.
For the game they held the Flyers to just 36.5% shooting from the floor, 17.5% from three-point range, and a horrid 36.4% from the foul line (4-11). And when you get beaten by 8 points 4 of 11 from the foul line lingers…long into the summer and into future seasons when you emphasize the point that it’s the little things that often cost you a basketball game.
“Give them credit, they were a very good basketball team,” said Kurt Goettemoeller in the post-game press conference Saturday. “And when you look at the stats the difference in the game was the first quarter. We had been warned that they were a fast-starting team, and that’s what happened today.
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“We had too many turnovers in the first quarter. They made some open shots. We allowed them three transition baskets in the first half, which is not what we do. We made some runs, got it down to 2 in the third quarter, but we just didn’t shoot the ball well today. We were 4 of 11 from the foul line and 3 of 17 from three-point. This team had flaws that we’ve overcome all year, and today our flaws got exposed a little bit. We’re not a great shooting team and we needed to be today”
Marion had the decided size advantage inside with 6’8″ Austin Niekamp, but Monroe negated that advantage by doubling Niekamp in the post with a couple of 6’2″ defenders.
Marion’s Brayden Mescher stretches for the rim during the first half of Saturday’s Division VI title game.
And outside the post Monroe Central was simply quicker than Marion, again emphasizing the point that no pass, no shot, no dribble or even inbounds pass was uncontested. And the stress of that pressure wore on Marion.
“Take away the 14-6 first quarter and we pretty much played them even in the second half,” added Goettemoeller. “But we needed to shoot the ball better, and we didn’t.”
Trailing 23-17 at halftime, Marion made its run in the third quarter on the strength of some quick buckets by Austin Niekamp and Daniel Everman, and at one point cut the Monroe advantage to 2 points. But just as quickly Monroe Central answered with a made 3 pointer and free throws by Cooper H0well, who would finished with 10 points for the game.
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Marion again got some momentum around the rim in the fourth quarter with 4 points from Brayden Mescher, and 5 from Grant Kremer (including a made 3-pointer), but forced to foul in the final five minutes Marion’s inability to close ground at the line became an inescapable obstacle.
Kremer missed a pair, Ryan Homan missed a pair, and Monroe Central promptly capitalized on the other end. The Seminoles would make 6 of 10 attempts from the line when Marion was forced to foul to save clock – 6 points that loomed big at game’s end.
And at the end…a lot of woulda’, coulda’, shoulda’. Once again, titles don’t come easy.
“I don’t think I coached my best game,” said Goettemoeller. “We probably tried to run too many sets and maybe I should have let our kids play a little bit more. Their #5 (Chance Allen) did a great job on Brayden (Mescher) because he usually gets to the rim better than what he did today. We turned it over, we made some defensive mistakes in the first quarter, but again…after that I thought it was a pretty even game.”
As for shooting so poorly, there’s always the question of depth perception in an arena the size of UD or the Schottenstein Center, as compared to the average high school gym. Austin Niekamp and Grant Kremer, who combined to shoot 9 of 24 from the field, said it was not a factor.
Grant Kremer has his shot rejected by Monroe Central’s Chance Allen during Saturday 43-35 loss to the Seminoles.
“I’ve played in enough big gyms in AAU, and at Bowling Green last week,” said Niekamp. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”
Likewise, Kremer would not use the size of the building as an excuse.
“I’ve played in some pretty big-ass gyms,” he smiled, drawing some laughs from the media crowd. “We just didn’t make shots.”
Austin Niekamp led the Flyers with 13 points, Grant Kremer finished with 11, Brayden Mescher had 6, and Daniel Everman finished with 2.
Monroe Central had three players finish in double figures…Corbin Farnsworth with 12, Cooper Howell and Chance Allen both had 10.
“When you’re the underdog you’ve always got to come out swinging,” said Monroe Central coach Mason Long. “And that’s what we did. Marion is a well-coached team, they’re the #1 team in the state, and we said if we’re going to win we’re going to come out swingin’. We landed the first punch, jumped out to the early lead, and that’s pretty much how we played.”
It marked the first-ever basketball title for a school from Monroe County and the Seminoles’ crowd celebrated long and boisterously outside UD Arena as their team boarded the buses for home.
Worth a thousand words…Marion Local got close, but never chased down the lead in Saturday’s loss to Monroe Central.
Marion Local was seeking it fourth state title and frankly surprised many of the crowd of 7,295 with their inability to get over the hump and take the lead in the second half.
“You expect them to win because of what they’ve done in football,” said one of the security men at UD.
And OHSAA representative John Kronour attempted to salve the shock by stating that with three previous titles and this year’s runner-up finish…it proves that Marion Local is a basketball school, as well as football.
But no one from Mercer County dwells on moral victories, while appreciative – proud – of the Flyers’ excellent season and exciting run at the end. The standard is what the standard is.
“Our kids will handle this with class and move on to the next season,” said Goettemoeller with a smile. “That’s a testament to our parents and our community, and (Principal) Tim Goodwin and (Superintendent) Mike Pohlman have created a standard that pretty much impacts everything at Marion Local.”
No hard feelings.
Marion Local, for a day, had met its match.
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